Heretofore it has been a common practice to return the tailings to the threshing cylinder of a combine. In copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 809,408 filed June 22, 1977, and now abandoned, J. Lyle Shaver, Distribution Augers for an Axial Flow Combine, the tailings return is shown directed to the interior of a housing around a cylinder and cage of an axial flow combine. The tailings are discharged toward the perforated cage and thus a substantial portion of the tailings pass through the small radial openings in the cage and into contact with the rasp bars of the rotating threshing cylinder. This threshing action on the tailings by the threshing cylinder results in undesirable cracking of the grain kernels or seeds.